Auschwitz was the largest of the death camps
in which millions of Jews from all over Europe together with Russians, Poles
and Czechs were incinerated. Due to the fact that Auschwitz is located not far
from Zaglembie, the Jews of this region were the first victims of the Nazi
beast and a hundred thousand residents from here, were suffocated in the gas
chambers.

Despite the stringent supervision, the oppressive administration and the hard
labor, the Auschwitz inmates managed to organize an underground movement.
Initially, it took the form of an underground activity for those who were
brave enough to run away from the camp  and there were quite a few of
these.

However, most of them were caught and brought
back, though nonetheless, several managed to survive. Later on, the Underground
purchased weapons and prepared itself for a mass rebellion. Not all of the
insurgent activity is known, since most of them were discovered, beforehand, by
the Germans and the participants murdered. The following is a description of
individual activities in which the people of Bedzin, interned in Auschwitz,
were involved.

In Block no. 7 in Birkenau the Jews incarcerated there were destined to be
gassed. On the 30th of December 1943, as
the doors were opened, in order to lead them out to their death, fifteen Jewish
inmates attacked the SS men with their bare hands, they injured the Germans and
bit them. The murderers called for assistance, and the rebels  were
executed.

At the end of October, Jews were brought to
Auschwitz from Warsaw, and these had furnished themselves with false American
citizenship papers. In the beginning the Germans placed them in the Palski
Hotel and the Jews were certain that they would be exchanged for Germans who
were citizens of enemy countries. However, their hope was unavailing, since
they were expelled to death camps, in particular, Auschwitz.

These American groups, that numbered 1750 people, were brought
to Auschwitz in October 1943. They were immediately ordered to undress and were
taken to the crematorium. One woman refused to undress in front of the SS soldiers
and when the parade commander, Schillinger, forcibly tried to take her clothes off,
she slapped his face. She managed to wrestle his gun from his hand, shot and killed
him. Other women seeing her heroic act also rebelled, and wounded several SS men.
After a short struggle these brave women fell from bullets fired from Nazi machine guns.

In 1943 secret cells were established who
were in contact with people from outside, who managed to smuggle guns into the
camp. In the beginning, these were small groups of Jews, Frenchmen and Czechs,
but in September 1944 the Underground numbered 160 activists and 280 organized
inmates, most of them Jews.

An open rebellion, however, as was planned
by the camp Underground did not transpire, since events moved at lightning
speed, the Underground didn't have the capability of carrying out their plans.
The Sonderkommando carried out the individual cases of revolt that
occurred in Auschwitz, those wretched inmates who were compelled to deal with
the victims of the gas chambers. The inmates who were taken to carry out this
terrible forced labor, participated in this work for three months only, since
after that time they were killed in order to conceal all traces of evidence,
and in their place came others, and so it continued. They were isolated and
locked up to prevent them from coming in contact with people from outside. In
every unit of the Sonderkommando, there was a desire kindled to
rebel and take revenge, however, the Germans always pre-empted them and they
were wiped out before they could accomplish anything.

When time after time the date of the
rebellion was deferred, the Jewish inmates began, seeing that their end was
near, to pressure the leaders into beginning the planned rebellion. Even though
the Underground leaders knew that the time was not ripe for the uprising, they
gave their informal agreement, to the men of the Sonderkommando to
allow them to act on their own initiative and own risk.

The first plan was to blow up all four incinerators in Birkenau, but their
plan was discovered hours only before its undertaking, and as punishment
the Germans decided to expedite the execution of the rebels.

On Saturday, the 3rd of October 1944, the SS
soldiers took the 300 Sonderkommando workers, in order to execute
them, however this did not come smoothly, since in the meantime the rebellion
erupted. The Number 4 Gas Chamber stokers killed the SS leader and set fire to
the crematorium. The attempt to blow up the equipment and the other death
machinery only partially succeeded. The workers of Number 1 Furnace threw the
German supervisor, Köhl, into the oven, and killed four officers, injured
many of them, cut the wires and escaped from the camp.

The Germans immediately sent reinforcements
of soldiers, who completely quelled the rebellion. Later an extended
investigation was begun: How did explosives and weapons get into the camp? The
Germans managed to follow up the movements of four Bedzin women, who worked in
the Onian explosives factory, and who, every day as they left their
work had smuggled out the stolen material in the folds of their
dresses into the Auschwitz camp. The smuggled goods were supplied
to the Underground, who passed it on to a Russian expert, whose name was
Borodine, and who prepared the bombs for future use.

These brave women were: Ella Gärtner, Regina
(her family name is not known), Ruzia and Dorka Sapirsztajn from Bedzin. These
courageous women together with the go-between from the Underground, Raza
Rovota, were cruelly tortured, since they refused to give the names of the
people from outside, with whom that they been in contact. In November 1944
their sentence was determined: these five wretched and tortured women were
executed and hung in front of the masses, to be seen, that they would know and
fear…

From the many participants in the rebellion we know that these Bedzin
people were amongst them: Iszajahu Erlich, a committee member of the
Auschwitz Underground, survived and went to live in Erez Israel
and fell in Gush Etzion during the War of Independence: Mosze Wiganski, the
first to stab the crematorium commander with a knife, a deed which gave the
signal for the Number 3 incinerator to be blown up, Beniek Fersztenfeld,
Wygodzki, the Cymberknopf brothers, David Gutman, and Golberg from Sosnowiec,
who was amongst the leaders of the Poale Zion movement in Zaglembie. There are
many other names, which we were unable, unfortunately to determine, and who are
worthy of mention and eternal praise for their sacrifice. Even though they knew
they were doomed to extinction, that they were engaging into a futile struggle,
they still embarked into this battle out of a blessed Jewish obligation.

We bow our heads before them.

[Page 364]

In the Bunkers

Aharon Brandes

Translated by Lance Ackerfeld

(Segments from the book The demise of the Jews in Western Poland,1945)

When I reached Bedzin, a number of operations had been carried out against the
Germans and the Judenrat. Hundreds of letters were sent to the
German Reich, describing how the Germans were annihilating Polish
Jews, since in the Reich nothing was known about this; Jews were
taken from all over Europe via Germany to Poland in order to be settled, as it
were, somewhere in the East. Pamphlets were also published in
Polish on the same subject for the benefit of the Poles.

Propaganda opposing the Judenrat took place amongst the Jewish
population, pamphlets were published and policemen that had behaved over
cruelly were attacked.

The organizers started a defence force. Naturally, weapons needed to be
obtained in Zaglembie, and hence we decided to contact our comrades in Warsaw.
For this purpose Edzia Pejsachson was sent there. After a couple of days she
returned accompanied by a different friend  Astrid (she was Sosia Miller)
and with them pistols and hand-grenades; they reached Czestochowa, and at the
train station a Gestapo officer arrested them. Astrid snuck away and reached
Bedzin. Edzia was arrested holding three pistols and hand-grenades. She was
badly tortured so that she would reveal from whom she had received the weapons
and to whom she was taking them. She did not reveal anything  and was
shot.

Several times Astrid brought weapons from Warsaw, and always managed to avoid
the border inspections. Hand-grenades and Molotov cocktails were
made using a pattern that she brought from the combat unit. The bombs that we
produced were better than the German ones that we used to buy. We needed
bunkers in order to produce and hide these weapons. We began building them.

Cwi Brandes and Baruch Gaptek were leaders of the defence. Cwi looked after
obtaining weapons and Baruch taught the correct way to use them. Herszl
Szpringer and Frumke Plotnicka were to keep in contact with our comrades, who
knew our situation well. Dawid Kozlowski took care of the building of the
bunkers. Work was carried out at night. We had trouble disposing of the
excavated soil. Our comrades were collapsing from tiredness, but continued to
build. They prepared themselves.

Rjwka Glanc, from Kibbutz Dror in Czestochowa, came to us with a
letter from one of the kibbutz members situated in Treblinka and was working in
clothes sorting. Every day I see with my own eyes how thousands of Jews
are brought here, and the following day they are no longer alive. I see how my
people are being annihilated. Do whatever is in your power, just don't let them
bring you here, for you to be killed by poisonous gas!

Clothes belonging to the exiled Jews were brought to the labor camp in
Katowice, and fifty Jews worked in sorting them out. Various letters were found
in these clothes, from which could be learnt from were these Jews were brought
from, from all over Europe they were brought, even from Greece. There were
weeks in which 15 carriages per day of clothes were brought there.

In the Kamionka ghetto (the ghetto for the Jews of Bedzin), near the new train
station, we would hear screams from the carriages piercing through the silence
of night: Hear O Israel, save us! These were the screams of those
taken to be annihilated. 100 to 120 people were stuffed into cattle wagons.
Many died along the way, on account of the overcrowded conditions. It was
impossible to take out the dead, and they were stood with the living till the
wagons reached the extermination camp.

Herszl Szpringer relates: When a column of thousands of Jews were taken from
Bedzin and sent to Auschwitz, he urged the Jews to run away. If everyone
started running the Gestapo would indeed open fire, would kill several hundred
of them, but most would be able to escape. The Jews blocked their ears to his
words. They were so despondent that death seemed their only escape.

Immediately after the first aktzia the idea of resistance spread,
however, we stood alone not only because of the apathy of the Polish citizens,
but also through the apathy and even opposition of the Jews, themselves.

A major change began only after they realized, that the intention of the
Germans was to destroy every last Jew. It was clear to everyone that the
meaning of the deportation was: Death, and the thought of not going to the
wagons became everyone's aspiration.

The attitude of the Judenrat in Bedzin to the resistance initiative
was negative. Even before the deportation Moniek Meryn read an anonymous letter
in the Judenrat, that Herszl Szpringer had assembled a group of
youths, who had decided to carry out acts of rebellion and Meryn suggested that
they be arrested. The people of the Judenrat opposed this.

After 7500 Jews were deported the mood of the population changed, and there was
even a change in the mood towards the Judenrat, and there was even
a change in mood towards us by the Judenrat. Our comrades in Warsaw
wrote to us: If you want to do something, you need to carry out an
activity greater than that performed in Warsaw.

After the Warsaw Ghetto was destroyed, supplies of weapons from there stopped.
We sent our comrades to Warsaw and they bought weapons by themselves. Cwi met a
Jew, Tarlo, who was living as an Aryan and lived in the Polish
section of the city. He helped him, for payment, to make weapons. Ina Goldbard,
and sometimes also Renia Kokalka, transferred the weapons from Warsaw to Bedzin.

Ina traveled to Warsaw on the last week before the deportation. She was to
undertake important missions: To bring back pistols and grenades; to send
comrades to the partisan group in Mydlniki near Krakow. Our comrades in Warsaw
were in contact with them, and Ina was to finalize the negotiations. She was
captured along the way and it was discovered that her Aryan papers were false.
She managed to escape, and arrived in Kamionka during the aktzia
and she had no way of getting in. She was caught again and escaped once more.
Tired and hungry, she reached Zawiercie where there were still Jews, and she
met up with our [female] comrade. She lay down to rest, when policemen came,
brutally arrested her and turned her into the Gestapo, who executed her.

*

It happened on Saturday evening, early on the 1st of August 1943. There was a
mood of depression in the ghetto. Rumors spread that something was about to
happen. Cwi Brandes was occupied in sending four comrades to Hungary. It was
the first attempt to smuggle people over the border. Baruch Gaptak was also
going, since a responsible person was required to organize the next groups.

A number of shots were heard. Our bunker, that of the Hashomer
Hatzair unit had been built to hold no more than ten people, already held
more than twenty. Cwi decided, that half of us would go to the Kibbutz
Dror bunker. I met up with Baruch. They had returned from their
journey since the person meant to smuggle them across the border had not turned
up.

[Page 365]

Baruch went down to the laundry bunker, in which he lived with Frumke Dolnoroza
(Baruch's girlfriend, was killed defending the bunker on the 3rd of August
1943. The bunker was organized suitably and was well planned. There was a bomb
factory here, various explosives and also a radio receiver. The bunker was
built after tremendous effort; the escape tunnel was literally dug with our
bare hands, without any implements.

The bunker had room for twenty people, but 35 were in there already. For food
we had sacks of rusks and dry bread that had become moldy. The issue of water
was even more problematical. We only had a small barrel and in the overcrowded
conditions our thirst was great. On Sunday, in the early morning, we heard
footsteps above. There was running in all directions and searching. We lay down
in gravely silence. It was already beginning to get dark and they were still
searching. A terrible silence reigned. At 11 o'clock at night there was taps on
our bunker Certainly one of us, since he knew the agreed upon
knock. It was Cwi who had come from the bunker in the mine road. The
people there did not have the strength to continue. Their bunker had a double
ceiling, and between the ceilings there was sand and stones. Had the Germans
removed the upper ceiling panels, they would have seen sand and would not have
heard any sound from the basement. The Germans found a pile of bread loaves
above. If there is bread here that means that there are also Jews
here. They began removing the floor boards and demolishing the oven,
shouting Juden raus! The comrades were frightened that the oven
would collapse on their heads and they would be buried alive. The Germans
finally left. Cwi relates, that the whole ghetto was lit up, there was
relentless firing, and in Srodula (the ghetto of the Sosnowiec Jews) as well,
everything was lit up. This meant that the aktzia continued there
as well and it was all embracing and this place was destined to be
Judenrein. Cwi came to us since all the weapons were in Baruch and
Frumka's bunker, and we needed to take them out and distribute them. He came
back next evening to the unit's bunker. After he left there was unremitting
firing, and we were worried that he wouldn't make it to through.

The Germans continued searching the whole city. In a bunker close to ours there
were the apartment tenants and members of the Poale Zion movement,
Gedalia Sobkowski, Szymon Gutman and others. It was discovered on the first day
and everyone was taken out. As an extra precaution we blocked the two air
inlets in order to camouflage our hiding place. We were all half-dressed,
streams of sweat ran down us. Women feinted and we didn't have water. We
distributed small meals to the very weak only. At 11 o'clock at night we opened
up the bunker and went in search of water. The Germans had cut off the supply
of water to the ghetto on entering.

The whole ghetto was in flames. From time to time rockets were fired, and it
was like daytime. We had to lay flat all the time, so that the Germans wouldn't
see us. We found an empty bunker from which the murderers had already taken out
the Jews, and in which there was half a bucket of water. Thus we went from
house to house, till we collected a few buckets of water.

On the fourth day of the deportation, Cwi and Abram came to us. They told us
that they could no longer stay in the bunker, because of lack of food and
water. One of the women, Pesia, who had fallen ill, had a high fever and began
crying out for Cwi to kill her. A German heard her cries, came to the window
and called: Jews, out! Cwi went to the window and with his pistol
dropped the German. Everyone ran off. No one remained apart from the sick
woman. We thought that she was no longer alive, but at 3 o'clock in the
morning, she came to us dripping blood.

In Bedzin there was a group of comrades from the Gordonia movement
in Czestochowa, who had organized themselves in the pioneering farm before the
deportation. There a bunker built in the farm, the entrance to which was
through the hothouse, and a tunnel led out into a field. The farm was in a
Polish neighborhood, and the Poles knew about the bunker. In it there were also
members of the local Gordonia movement, amongst which there was
Hanka Bornsztajn (from the leaders of Gordonia in Bedzin and
Poland. She was amongst the initiators of the pioneering underground in
Zaglembie. She died in the last aktzia of August 1943), Szlomo
Lerner (born in Bedzin, a Gordonia member, a member of the
organizational command of the Jewish fighters in Bedzin. He fell on the 1st of
August 1943, together with a group of comrades, through the betrayal of a Pole,
a Gestapo agent) and others, altogether around 30 people. The Poles exposed the
bunker, and all the people in it were captured. As a result, we began building
a second bunker, excavating to a depth of one and a half feet, but we reached a
water artery and were forced to cover it up.

We heard footsteps close to the bunker, removing the coals from the opening and
exposing the entrance. A Jew came down and told us: The German police were
coming and we needed to go up straight away. Herszl Szpringer (a
Freiheit graduate, and one of the outstanding personalities of the
underground in Zaglembie. He was one of the organizers of the escape to
Slovakia. He was one of the organizers of the Jewish fighters in Bedzin and a
member of the command) He quickly began handing out the money we had in our
possession. We had three guns, and it was decided to defend ourselves, as soon
as the bunker was discovered. Herszel claimed, that it was Beham (a clerk in
Rasner's workshop) that had turned us in. We decided to go up, except for a
woman and a man who hid under the hammocks. The Germans stood with their
pistols drawn. Finding the money really enraged them. They continued searching
and found the pistols. They ordered us to lay down spread-eagled and not to
lift up our heads. We saw that our end was near. After a couple of moments,
they decided to hand us over to the Gestapo. The Germans took out two women,
who they believed that the guns belonged to them. They didn't say anything.
They beat them and battered them till they were unrecognizable. The women could
not sit or lay down.

It was already beginning to get dark and the Germans began burning, in order to
light up the ghetto. Cwi asked Herszl if he would agree to run off. Herszl
answered No. We had run out of strength. It's now or
never  Cwi cried and began running. The Germans fired at him and
began chasing him. Several minutes later they returned and said: We
liquidated him!

They chained our hands to each other so that we would not run away, and thus we
sat confined for a whole night whilst four German soldiers stood opposite us
with their guns pointed at us. In the morning, they took three of us youths out
into the field. We were taken quite a distance and there we saw Cwi lying there
on his back as if he was asleep. The lieutenant ordered us to take him. When we
lifted him up, we couldn't carry him: his body was broken up and was flung here
and there. His face was riddled with bullet holes. We took him to the wagon, in
which a second victim lay, and in Kamionka we buried them both. Eighteen days
later, at 11 o'clock at night, Gestapo men came in a lorry, took all the men
out of the camp and ordered them to remove all the bodies from the graves,
loaded them on the lorry and took them to Auschwitz, to be incinerated, in
order that no evidence would remain of their murders.

[Page 366]

The Community Committee

by K. Tzetnik 135633

Translated by Nitsa Bar-Sela

Kazetnik was born in Zaglembie. He shuns publicity and tries to remain as
anonymous as he can. However, thousands of readers in Israel and readers all
over the world who read him in ten different languages, including Japanese,
know him very well by his pen-name Katzetnik 135633 (I received this name
from the Nazi. The Nazi is gone but the world has not yet wiped this name from
me.) His two monumental and very famous books are: Salamandra
and The House of Dolls, which are of the very best pieces of the
holocaust literature, and which are praised and lauded by critics. These are
great works of human and universal value and he is still in his creative prime.

His gift for writing was revealed when he was young, still safe in his hometown
which had not yet been destroyed. From time to time he used to publish poems
and essays in the press, which he felt close to thematically. His friends
predicted that he would make a great literary career and they were right.

Katzetnik was one of the hundred thousand Zaglembie Jews in Auschwitz, who was
doomed to survive, although death had continuously accompanied him wherever he
went, in order to tell the world how women, old people, children and babies
were brutally gassed, burnt and defiled by the German animal.

As soon as he was released from the death-camp, he immigrated to Israel. Here
he wrote Salamandra (Dvir publication, Tel Aviv, 1947).
Into this book he poured what he had carved out from his soul with his gifted
pen, the experiences he went through during the war and the holocaust. This is
a horrifying, amazing and captivating document which voices the roar of the
horrors and the moaning of the human conscience which was defiled, a
composition which enables the readers to share the writer's experiences and
suffering.

The drama takes place in the towns of Zaglembie and the main figures are Moniek
Matrose and Felicia Szwarc, and others known to us by their real names who will
be notoriously remembered for their vile services to the butchers, who despite
their loyalty, betrayed and killed them too.

He also wrote The House of Dolls (Dvir, 1953).
According to the writer, this book took him eight years and four drafts, which
he destroyed one after the other, to complete .We are filled with outrage and
are profoundly shocked at the horrifying things described in this book and at
the horrendous pictures of indescribable brutality and violence towards Jewish
women and girls.

No wonder the writer refused to accept the reparations offered as compensation
by the Germans to those who 'attended' concentration camps. I still remember
Katzetnik's words which he wrote a few years ago about this subject. He said
that the most cherished and invaluable compensation he could have ever wished
for were a few personal belongings of his gentle father who was killed, a bunch
of golden curls of his sister's beautiful hair and other small objects of his
unforgettable relatives.

Don't these prayed for gifts remind us of the three presents of Y. L. Peretz?

*

When the idea of Pinkas Bendin was first brought up, I turned to
Katzetnik and asked him to contribute from his composition to this book. Here
is his answer:

I was touched by your letter, my friend, but I cannot fill your request.
Please, forgive me. The idea of commemorating the Jewry of Zaglembie in a book
is a sacred idea, but let everybody do it in his own way. As for you 
bless you for anything you have done in their precious memory!

*

The following is a chapter from Salamandra by K. Tzetnik, a
Zaglembian that we are so proud of.

M. H.

On the first days of the raids, a little after the release of the detainees
from the square of Gotsztajn's factory, there was a notice on the walls of the
houses in Metropol (an area in Zaglembie), among the other notices of the
special rules and regulations regarding the Jews, the first Jewish notice which
was written in German on one side, and in Yiddish, in Hebrew letters, on the
other. And this is what it said:

To All Jews!

All the Jews, including children and old people, men and women, have to
register in the Judenrat. Those Jews who will abstain, will not receive their
bread-cards and will be severely punished.

On the German side of the notice there was the signature of the German mayor
and on the Jewish side  that of the Head of the town elders of the Jewish
community, Moniek Matrose (Moniek Meryn).

And indeed, everybody hurried to register. First, because it was a German
regulation, and second  in order to receive the bread-cards. As for the
Judenrat itself, they didn't think much of it. In the past, when times were
normal, the Jews used to fight vehemently against each other over the business
of the Gemeinde, (the community). Every party aspired to have as many
representatives as it could have there. The party that had the majority could
also nominate a Rabbi, a Shochet (the ritual slaughterer) and other officials
of its own. Sometimes the elections to the Gemeinde would end up in
bloodshed. But this was all in the past. Now people's hearts were not free for such
dealings, which looked faraway and petty. People considered them as adults
recall their childhood pranks.

However, Moniek Matrose wanted people to ascribe to the community committee the
importance which it deserved, in spite of all. If this body were considered
important, then he too, the person who headed it, would be respected.
Therefore, he used to run from one room to another, alert and full of energy,
working hard during the days, and skipping sleep at nights. He recruited an
army of clerks, and young girls would sit in a pool, rattling on their
typewriters, registering the population, printing and distributing bread-cards
with a small Star of David on them. There was an impression that a big thing
was going on for the good of the community. Moniek sent invitations to the
former leaders of the Gemeinde, and also called the town's notables to come and
help him run the community committee, but nobody noticed him, nor paid
attention to his wish.

[Page 367]

Now, those active in the Gemeinde were people who, before the war, would play
cards with him. Limanowski, who used to be a small communal worker, now proved
to be a mean, degenerate creature. There were also petty party administrators,
whose only purpose was to get for themselves a double ration of bread.

But what Moniek Matrose did not achieve, the Gestapo did, after a few months.
The Gestapo put their hands on the community committee and bestowed on it the
importance it had tried to achieve without success in the past. In fact, it was
given now such supreme power as Moniek himself had never dreamt to get.

And this is what happened:

A few months after the German plague had burst out of its borders, the Gestapo
entered Metropol and took the reins of government from the local civil
authority. Their main activity focused, as found out later, on the Yut
[Jews] Department  that is, the one which handles the affairs of
the Jews. They appointed Alfred Dreier to be in charge of it.

The main purpose of the Gestapo was to create a Jewish parliament,
through which, by the help of Jewish brains and hands, the Germans would
achieve their final goal regarding the Jews. Moniek Matrose was summoned to the
Gestapo offices, to the Yut Department. Since he was not fluent in
German, he took Felicia Szwarc (Fania Czarna) as his private secretary.

This Felicia, not only was her family name Szwarc, that is, black,
but she herself was all black as well: her hair was black, her eyes were black,
and also her soul was charcoal black. This woman was only twenty five years
old, but she had already discovered all of life's secrets.

Well, these representatives of the large Jewish public of Metropoli 
Moniek Matrose and Felicia Szwarc  found themselves sitting in the
Writers' Bureau of the Gestapo, Yut Department, in front of its head and leader
Alfred Dreier.

On the wall was Adolf Hitler standing in full height, and at his feet Dreier
was sitting, dressed in a brown shirt, his eyes grey, face oblong, and speech
slow, elegant, polite, as befits a loyal member of the great German nation.

I have asked you to come  please, do sit down  to inform you that
since according to the law of Great Germany certain restrictions regarding your
people who sit in the State of Great Germany and in the countries occupied by
it have been set, and because we are forced to carry out this law without any
delay, I have decided that, in order to prevent from you any unpleasantness, it
would be advisable to hand the execution of these restrictions over to you,
that is, to the notables of the Jewish Community Board. However, you will vouch
with your life, and I would rather add, with your family's life, that this law
be carried out in good faith. I hate to put you in a state of trepidation, but
I see it as my duty to draw your attention to the German order
discipline punctuality and discretion.

Hitler was looking down from the wall, his lower lip protruding as if he was
talking to his moustache: Never mind, I can count on my people

Dreier relaxed himself on his chair, leaning back in such a way that the
forelegs of the chair were lifted in the air. He sent his hand forward and with
a clenched fist against the edge of his desk to support himself in this posture.

Well, in so many words, it means that I require from the Jewish population that
in three days they forward five kilos of gold, a tax which, I presume, is not
too high –Yes  he added  and every one will get from the
political secret police a certificate addressed to all German officials that no
harm be done to you. You are the Jewish council of the Community
Board of the Jews, and as such, you are, of course, at my service alone. Do you
understand?

 Jawohl! (yes)

Felicia Szwarc expressed it in the right German pronunciation, and Moniek
repeated after her in his thin nervous voice, a woman's voice.

Once outside, he walked faster than he usually did. He was conscious of his own
importance. It was no trivial matter. He guaranteed his own and his family's
heads. This awareness intensified his sense of responsibility for the whole
Jewish community.

He stormed into the community offices, entered his room and commanded to send
for his people, especially Limanowski, right away. Then and there it was
decided to call the town's notables and its rich members.

The people were due to be there at twelve at noon, but none of them showed up.

Moniek ran about like somebody who had swallowed a deadly poison.

 I will not risk my head, no, I will not risk my head!

He called the people a second and a third time, but nobody wanted to obey
Moniek Matrose.

The appointed date drew near and Moniek rushed about like a madman. He really
felt the urgency of the time and the responsibility he held now. He felt the
danger he was in because of the public, the fire burning around him. And within
the flames of this fire he began to transcend to heights he had never known
before.

Not so Felicia Szwarc. She was not worried at all. She seemed to have a secret
way out of this situation and therefore was calm.

In the morning of the third day she telephoned to the political secret police:

 May I speak to the head of the Yut Department?
 Yes, I am here, on the phone. Who is speaking?
 This is the secretary of the Jewish community Board, Mrs. Szwarc. May I
come for consultation?
 Please, I am waiting for you.

Half an hour later, the administrator of the Jews, Felicia Szwarc, found
herself seated in the room of the Head of the Gestapo, Yut Department,
composedly delivering a detailed account of the state of things.

 Yes, you did well coming to me

Dreier stood up, put on his coat and prepared to leave.

 Please,  he endowed Felicia with a gentlemanly gesture, bowed to
her at the open door and let her out first.

Downstairs, the car had already been waiting, and entering it, again, the
gentleman gave the Jewess the respect of a lady.

The vehicle pulled up outside the community offices, and out came the Head of
the Gestapo and Felicia Szwarc. The news spread immediately among all the
lodgers of the building, the clerks and also the inhabitants of the street.
Some very important guest is at the Gemeinde right now.

Dreier entered the manager's room and sat at the table. Nobody was allowed to
stay in the room except Moniek Matrose and his secretary, Felicia Szwarc.

[Page 368]

Dreier ordered that the card-index of the Jewish population be handed to him
and asked the manager to approach him. The sheets with the lists were put in
front of him on the desk. In these sheets the lives of the whole Jewish
population of Metropol were held. Dreier took out of his pocket a red pencil,
handed it to the manager and told him to draw a little cross next to twenty
names of rich Jews.

Moniek became dizzy and his sight blurred. He held the pencil in his hand and
felt it turned into a knife with which he had to carve the sentence of twenty
people. The twenty names suddenly got faces of people, not strangers but people
he actually knew, with throats and eyes, and the eyes were looking at him in a
mute outcry. He was overwhelmed with horror: these eyes were staring at him and
at the knife in his hand, and in a minute he is going to cut their throats and
a gush of blood will splash against his face and body and hands. How horrible!

The lists are on the desk. The lines of the names dance in front of his eyes.
The letters mingle as if trying to hide the names, the lives, the throats of
the people. He cannot read  cannot read at all! He runs his finger on the
lines, as if trying to stop them, to keep them in their place, so that he could
read them, but the letters jump and dance over his hand, cannot be intercepted,
as if made of quicksilver. An evil deed.

It seemed that Felicia noticed it. She approached him to help check the names
and while doing so she pulled the pencil out of the director's hand and quickly
marked the crosses like an experienced ritual slaughterer.

 It is my obligation to draw your attention to German order
discipline punctuality and discretion Most important:
discretion

He got up and left.

In the morning the town was in panic. At the crack of dawn Aunt Liza rushed to
Fania. Her face was not made up and she was wearing a kerchief. She spread her
arms, then flapped her hands on her sides like a butchered hen waving its
wings: Children, a calamity has befallen me! Fiends came at night and pulled
Uncle out of his bed. Children, woe is me!

Sonja put on the nearest dress she could get hold of, but did not know in fact,
where she should go and how she could help.

It was a well-known fact to the whole family that Sonja was a woman of brains
and resourcefulness, so they would rush to her for help in times of trouble.

 Sonjaszi! Come to my rescue! They have taken your uncle! Children! Woe
is me! Sonja held Aunt Liza's arm and led her downstairs to the street.
Aunt Liza let her lead her, and as she was trying to walk, she looked like the
main mourner in a funeral, who is supported while walking after the coffin, her
knees bending with each step, like a delicate tree in a storm.

There were many other people in the street, running helplessly, spreading their
arms, some wailing openly like Aunt Liza and others with mute pain and anguish.

From afar, Sonja saw Irina Szafran running towards her. At that moment, she
felt as if her heart burst inside her, like a blown up balloon pricked by a
needle.

Irina approached, her two arms spread out. She fell on Sonja's neck and started
crying bitterly. Until now she had not shed a tear, but as soon as she touched
Sonja's shoulder, she burst out in bitter tears as if she felt that here she
had found shelter and deliverance.

Sonja could not move. She felt the burden of all these people's misfortune on
her heart. What should she do? Where can she go? How must she start? She used
to be very fast at solving problems, and there was no complication that she
could not disentangle. No matter how difficult the situation was, she had a key
of her own. She knew where to find the end of the coiled thread which would
take her out of the maze into daylight. She was not familiar with helplessness
and weakness. But today, God had taken her powers and she could not find the
end of the thread; no longer was she confident of the right solution. She was
trapped now in a maze of her own. She felt she was committing a crime, which
filled her with grief, and the one who grieves cannot be divinely inspired

Bianka, Aunt Liza's eldest daughter, came running too, and stood in front of
Sonja empty-handed. Bianka had a German acquaintance, a manager of Bet
Pkidud Haomanut. She had hurried to him very early in the morning. He had
promised to her to do everything. And indeed, he had gone to the Police offices
to try his best, but had returned empty-handed: that matter, regretfully, was
in the hands of the Gestapo, and there he could be of no use. If the matter had
been in the hands of the Police, or of other offices, he could have taken care
of it, but in the Gestapo he could do nothing. They had told him that it was
the director of the community committee that could save them. Indeed, it was
very surprising

As soon as Sonja heard that, the whole matter became clear to her. She left
them and hurried to the Judenrat offices. Near the gate a notice had been put
up:

At ten in the morning a meeting will be held in the courtyard of the
community committee. Everybody must come. The director will speak.

Sonja went upstairs to the Judenrat offices. There things had changed
altogether. The atmosphere was completely different from what it had used to
be. Even the lowest official could not be approached easily. Strange people,
strange faces were seated in the service box and did not hurry to answer her
questions.

 And a new king succeeded to the throne who did not know
Josef

Sonja quickly turned her head and saw a young man standing close behind her,
his two small eyes jocund. He was the one who had whispered the sentence in her
ear. He went off, a sheet of paper in his hand, probably to finish some
important matter. As he was elbowing his way out of the crowded and noisy hall,
he turned his head to Sonja once again with a smile in his eyes, a smile of
wisdom and respect, of sorrow and gratitude to the person called Sonja Schmidt.
Sonja sent back a sad mute smile and thought to herself: There are times
when even a man's bile smiles

Then one of the Judenrat's clerks who knew her passed by. He greeted her and
offered his help. She found out from him that the director was not there, and
even if he had been, he would not have been easily available. First, it was
necessary to approach his secretaries, then wait until the line of those
bearing entreaties ended up, and when it was all over, you would probably be
told that the director was, at that very moment, with the
authorities for consultation.

At ten, the court of the Judenrat offices was filled with people from end to
end.

The director, Moniek Matrose, spoke from the terrace, his articulation fast and
his voice thin and feminine: For three successive days I had called you
to come to me, and you scorned me I put my life in danger for you, my
life and the life of my family! I risk death for you! Because of
your underrating my words! This time I have made up my mind to act
differently. The Jewish congregation must not and will not suffer because of
certain individuals who make light of my actions! As for these people  I
will take the strictest steps at my disposal against them! I am making
now the final attempt. I am inviting a group of people to come to me at noon
for consultation. Those who will not respond to this summon  let none of
their relatives seek my help in pleading for them when the moment
comes 

[Page 369]

No sooner had he completed his quick announcement than he disappeared from the
terrace.

By twelve o'clock the most respected and important members of the Jewish
community of Metropol had already been waiting silently in the council hall of
the Judenrat House for the director, Moniek Matrose.

The door opened and the director entered accompanied by his secretary.

Awe and silence prevailed in the room. The director speaks: I have been
ordered by the Gestapo to provide them within 24 hours with five kilos of gold.
We are in great peril. You know it as much as I do. There is a sacred mission
to accomplish: save our lives from the fire burning around us. We are in a cage
of death. Let us try and redeem ourselves with our money. Let the money be our
ransom. We should be grateful that we can afford to buy our lives for money.
Time is short. Let every one of you leave immediately with a written list and
start collecting the gold. Don't skip a single Jewish house. I hereby announce:
this is not an act of collecting gold, but ransom. You must not eat nor sleep,
until the required quota of gold is fully gathered. I will be the first to take
this ring off my finger and give it to you.

On that day the Jews took off their wedding rings, women removed their
earrings, collected the family jewels and delivered the first offering to the
Nazi golden calf.

They weighed and counted and there was still not enough of it. The lacking
amount was completed by the families of the twenty Jews who were in prison.
Moniek Matrose promised them that at this cost they would be able to see them
again safe and sound.

(An excerpt from Salamandra)

[Page 369]

The Academic Intellectuals

(Doctors, lawyers, engineers and teachers in Bedzin)

by Attorney, Dr. Reuven Rechtman

Translated by Lance Ackerfeld

The destruction of the city will be remembered for thousands of years and the
annihilation of the people will harden our hearts.

Y. L. Gordon

States, countries and people were created over generations, through the labour
of many dedicated people that devoted their lives to their development. Every
nation and every country dearly preserves the memory of the founders and
builders, who contributed to their progress and glorified their names. History
books, monuments and memorials perpetuate their memories.

And then came the blow to the Jews of Poland, heart of the Diaspora, the
terrible Holocaust, which destroyed all its achievements, its material and
cultural values that had been developed over generations, and the lives of
millions were decimated over a period of five years. All those who had devoted
their lives, souls and talents to Judaism were wiped off the face of the earth:
religious leaders, scientists, educated and intellectuals, who for generations
had participated in the development of the Jewish people.

The holy duty of perpetuating the cities and the towns of Poland that were
destroyed and the memory of the great builders and creators of this Judaism, of
every discovery and every revelation, is incumbent on those who survived and
were witness to the destruction, and retain in their memories the greatest of
Polish Jewry that was completely destroyed.

The community books will join, without a doubt, the history books of Polish
Jewry and will serve as a source to historians and writers of the future and
will serve as a warning to the whole world, not to forget what is liable to be
carried out by a nation with a murderer as the leader to other nations, and a
warning to the Jewish people so they won't forget What Amalek did to
you; a warning to the Jews of the world to organize themselves, to build
a homeland and do everything to prevent a reoccurrence of the mass murder, that
was carried out by the wicked Nazis in sight of the humanity of the twentieth
century.

*

The history of Jewish Bedzin is printed in the pages of this book, and also the
names of individuals and families connected with it, and I will outline the
personalities of her builders and her intellectuals, and how they caused Bedzin
to be  albeit on a small scale  a Jewish metropolis in
Poland, a thriving center of Jewish life amongst the gentiles.

The name of Dr. Szlomo Weinziher is connected with Jewish Bedzin, the first Jew
to appear during the Russian-Czarist government in Poland in the name of the
Jews and demand their rights. When Poland was re-established he was the Jewish
representative in Bedzin and environs vis-a-vis the Polish authorities. In the
first elections for the city council he led the Jewish representatives, was
elected and held an important position in the running of the Bedzin city
council. He was a teacher for a generation of young activists in the city, did
not abandon the city even during the Nazi period, even though he had this
opportunity, and preferred to die with his people.

Dr. Maksimilian Wasercwajg, a senior doctor in the city, who was connected to
the Jewish life in it, was dedicated to his profession, assisted all those that
needed it, the health of the people was his daily concern. He passed away
before the war, and fortunately did not see the loss of his people.

Dr. Ferber, one of the best women's doctors in Bedzin and its surroundings, was
renown as a man with a good heart. He contributed a great deal to the maternity
hospital of Linat Haholim, an institute to be proud of. Under the
difficult conditions during the war he continually help the ailing of our city,
without noticing the dangers that he could entail. With the destruction of the
city and the exile, he gave up his profession and worked as a guard and a
labourer. He died suffering and tormented.

Dr. Dunai came to Bedzin as an army doctor. When he finished his service he
settled there, and devoted his time and efforts to helping others. He was
renowned as a dedicated doctor and a specialist in his profession.

Dr. Rechtszaft, was an excellent pediatric physician. He was also very active
in Jewish public life and was involved in several institutions: The Friends of
the Hebrew University, Hakoach, the Union of demobilized Jewish
soldiers and so on.

Dr. Chaim Perl, an outstanding doctor, people's person and active
in Bund and various cultural institutions. In the final years
before the Holocaust he was a member of the city council representing his
party. Due to the fact that he was a socialist and Jewish, he was exiled by the
Nazis to the concentration camps  from which he never returned.

[Page 370]

Amongst the lawyers, Natan Rider had been active from the Russian period and,
in fact was qualified to appear as defense in a magistrate's court.
He was the only Jew to practice in this profession during the Polish period. He
was only active for a short period.

After him came: Attorney Paradistal, a talented man, who achieved an important
place amongst the attorneys in Zaglembie. During the war he served as an
advisor to the Judenrat. He passed away following a serious illness.

Attorney, Dr. Reuven Rechtman, the writer of this article, was a member of the
Hitachdut party and which was for many years represented in the
Bedzin city council. He was active in public life. Survived. After the war he
settled in Israel and continued to practice law.

Attorney, Dr. Icchak Sztajger from Lwow, gained publicity in the twenties in
the case famous in the history of the Jews in Poland who were blamed for
bombing the president. Some time after the case, whilst echoes from it
reverberated around the world, he settled in Bedzin and practiced as a
successful attorney. He was active in the Zionist movement. He was also killed.

Attorneys, Dr. Goldberg and Dr. Zilberszac, the son of a well-known family in
the city, and was a former Hebrew teacher in the Tarbut school.
After the death of Attorney Paradistal he took on the position of legal advisor
of the Jewish community, he was exiled to a concentration camp  and he
never returned.

Amongst the Jewish engineers was Gustav Weinziher, the brother of the doctor,
Dr. Weinziher. He was known during the Czarist regime and especially during the
Polish period. He participated as a representative of the Jewish residents in
all the political activities that took place there. In the beginning, he was
appointed by the authorities to be the Jewish representative in the city
council. Later, he was elected several times to be the Jewish representative.
Later on, he was appointed as city engineer and ceased his public activities.

Engineer Goldsztaub was one of the factory builders in the city: the electric
company, the steel-wire and cable company and others. He was a well-known
activist and worked a great deal for the benefit of the city.

Engineer Ze'ev Erlich, a graduate of the Yavne gymnasia and the
Technion in Haifa. He was a young activist and well liked by
everyone. He was active in Tarbut, and was exceptional in his
talent and vigour. He was exiled to the concentration camps and was lost.

These were teachers in the primary schools, and I have not mentioned the
teachers of the Jewish high schools and the Agudat Israel and
Mizrachi schools, since their names appear in other sections of our
book. In addition, I did not mention the names of the writers in Bedzin, her
journalists, her artists and the other intellectuals, since they are mentioned
in another section of the Pinkas.

Quaking, we will remember all the forty thousand martyrs of Bedzin.

[Page 370]

Are there Germans there?

Mosze Benjamin Kleinman

Translated by Lance Ackerfeld

Thirteen years have passed since an end was brought to the evil shenanigans of
the wild beasts, that terrified Europe and cast a shadow  a shadow of
death and murder  on the whole world. However, those that survived will never
forget the memories of those days.

1941. Cattle wagons, their windows barred, 600 people crowded into each. The
train weaves its way from the Finef-Teichan camp in an unknown direction. The
people are tired and weary. They haven't eaten for days. They haven't even
received sufficient water. They stop at a station bustling with German
soldiers. Then, the citizens at the station, glance in jest and despise in the
direction of the death train. A group of generals and high-ranking officers
approaches our wagon. One of them asks in fluent German: Where are you
going, men of the Soap Battalion? Wild laughter saturated with murderous
desires echoes in the expanse of the station and our blood congeals in our
veins. A second officer throws a slice of bread through the wagon's window,
which converted the wagonload of wretched people into a battlefield. The
sobbing cries that reached the generals' ears amplified their joy. Jews
fighting Jews

Suddenly an explosion sounded in the wagon followed by the voice of a German
general speaking to us in a rhetorical tone: Hey, you  the Jews!
G-d is in heaven, and we will facilitate the way to Him, we will launch you to
Him through the chimney pipes 

And not only one of us thought at this time: We are weak and helpless, kept in
captivity and under duress and You, sitting on high, why are You silent?

1942. Saturday morning, in Modrzejowska Street in Bedzin. In the yard of my
house there were 600 Jews waiting together to be exiled from their
residence. The yard empties gradually, accompanied by beatings and
mournful weeping.

Suddenly, a young woman bursts through the door of my room on the second floor.
Her face shows terror, and she is holding a young girl, pale and skinny, aged
two and a half.

The mother asks for shelter and help for her daughter:  I am
leaving, but save my daughter! Take my wedding ring and leave the child
with a memento of her mother.

My wife barely had time to hand an apple to the young child when an armed
soldier appeared at the door and looking at the girl, he asked: Who
brought that filth here, and who gave her an apple? (a Jew found with any fruit
paid with his life). He kicked the girl with his boot and she hurtled through
the window out onto the street below. The girl's innocent soul was extinguished.

Thirteen years have passed and much has gone on since then, but this horrendous
scene and the countless atrocities that I witnessed  I'll never forget.

1942. I am walking in the streets of Bedzin with my young son, Yoshua (may the
Lord revenge his blood), who was then aged 4. Suddenly the information
circulates, threateningly, that the Great World is prepared to save
a million Jewish children from the hands of the Nazis, in order to transport
them to Erez Israel, to absorb them in Red Cross camps under Red Cross
supervision. I tell my son that he has a chance of reaching Erez Israel. The
boy asks me: Father, are there Germans in Erez Israel? Do only humans
live there ?

[Page 371]

On a mission to Bedzin

by Sara Erlichman

Translated by Lance Ackerfeld

(Excerpts from "Held by foul hands", 5710)

Accompanied by the brush factory engineer I leave the ghetto's gate. Here a
wagon is waiting. The Polish wagon-driver asks what I was doing in the ghetto,
since I wasn't Jewish. I reply to him that I needed to buy something from one
of the Jews. The Gentile didn't know me. Near one of the gates I step down, and
as the wagon moves off I leave through the gate and ponder: Where to? The time
 one in the afternoon, and the train to Czestochowa leaves at seven.
Indeed, Leah had given me the address of a Polish family  good
acquaintances  at 21 Jalicka Street, but I don't know where the street is
and I don't trust Polish acquaintances. I prefer to wander the streets. Here
there are loads of German soldiers. It seems that he liked the look of me,
since I was a charming blonde.

Thus the conversation continued. The German walked with me for around two
hours, and I do this willingly, since escorted by him I am not afraid of the
Poles hunting down Jews. We part and make a date for 9:00 in the evening. I
promise him that I will come.

At 9:00 I went to the station, bought a ticket and went out into the square. I
immediately picked up conversation with some Poles. The main thing was not to
stand by myself, not to cause suspicion. Would this first journey, filled with
dangers, succeed? Would I accomplish the mission placed upon me?

At dawn we reach Czestochowa. My companion on this trip, a Pole, introduces
himself to me as we get out. I reply without thinking: Erlichman. I was
frightened by my slip of tongue and quickly disappeared.

I went to our senior instructor who told me that Eliezer Geller (an activist in
the Gordonia movement in Poland) is unable to leave his place,
since the Germans knew that Eugenius Kowalski (Eliezer Geller's
Polish name) was Jewish. He expertly scrutinizes my face, and I leave him the
Polish money that I have with me. He brings out a young girl who will accompany
me, and we make our way to the General Government border. What a
glorious day, the first day of Spring! A person feels so young! Everything is
alive and blooming, and only we have been sentenced to death. For what and why?

We passed over the border. We wait for the train. I remember very well that my
name is Natalia Stszalczyk, living in Bedzin in a Polish street, I was born on
such and such a date and so on. To my trepidation, the Poszka inspector is at
the station at the same time, approaches me to check stamps. I was not warned
about this beforehand. The stamps didn't match up. I had fallen foul.

He insists that I tell the whole truth. If I confess I will be sent back over
the border and back home. I told him: My real name is Genowefa
Pawlowaska, I was born in Wlodzimierzów, in the Piatrakov district, I am
the daughter of Yossef and Elena nee Krulikowski, and live in Warsaw, 21
Waliska street

He continues to interrogate me, asking where my real Polish papers are. I point
out that there is no point in holding papers for two different names. I had
purchased my pass by a man I had met in Warsaw, and my papers I'd left at home.
He accepted my claims. I discreetly handled my glove, and couldn't find the
Cyanide-Kali tablet. I asked him to let me take my purse, in which I keep
requisites for the trip. He agrees, and I found the poison  I was
relieved. Now I would no longer be seen!

Fortunately, he never raised the question of my background. Simply remarkable,
since women that were Polish from birth were incarcerated on suspicion of being
Jewish.

The thick prison walls, the heavy gates and my spirits plummet within me.

Poszka enters the inspector's office, and I remain in the waiting room overseen
by the guard. Thoughts provoke me: what are my chances in this prison? Let's
suppose that I will not be recognized as the Jew I am, and perhaps I'll stay
alive, but my place is not here! I need to reach Bedzin  no matter what,
or get back to Warsaw, to friends.

Poszka and the inspector come to write the protocol. Once again: What is my
name, where do I live and so on. In the section Juda Poszka
initially writes No, but he decides to ask You're not
Jewish? I answer him confidently: No!

They ask me why I tried to cross the border, and I make up a story on family
matters. I ask Poszka permission to go out. He agrees, escorts me at a
distance, his gun loaded. I begin to run.

Halt, halt! (Stand, stand!), but I continue running. A shot
is heard and a whistling sound passes by my ear, a small flame sparks and the
smell of smoke rises from my punctured neck. My heart doesn't quiver and I
continue to run, however my pursuers catch up with me.

 I'll now indicate in the protocol that you tried escaping and you will
receive two years

 One is mine! I am not afraid. It is better to die than to live
here.

I had remorse in my heart for Poszka who had missed the target

A car came and we get in. Hot. I tremble from cold, hungry and weary. I have a
strong urge to sleep forever. We arrive at a former village schoolhouse that
was now a prison. Poszka puts me into a cold solitary cell. The cold penetrates
my bones. With the scraping of the key in the lock a cover descends over my
face. I look here and there. I have no way of escaping. The events of previous
days, the wandering journey over the last two days, an entire day without food
 all these brought me to a state of exhaustion. What would be my fate? I
am incarcerated and I can't do anything either for my life or for the memory of
the dead. How will my friends receive the news of my disappearance?

The first night passed sleeplessly. The next day Poszka came to take me away
from there. I shake myself from the restless night and, once again, I put on
the mask. I was taken to the customs office. Once again the
interrogation and the questioning begins: Why did you cross the border? I tell
them different stories about the death of my mother, about debt I owed to
relatives in Bedzin and so on. I signed the protocol and wait till my matters
are dealt with.

[Page 372]

Poszka intentionally leads me along roads that are difficult to walking on. I
have no strength to leap and bound over the trenches. However, I don't reveal my weakness. I was
taken into the Gendarmia and Poszka immediately declares, that I have already
eaten. After he leaves, the cook asks me if this is true, and I tell her, that
I haven't had a bite of food for thirty hours straight. She serves me bread and
coffee. Later the Gendarmes arrive and take me back to the prison, that I had
been locked in during the night.

The following day they lead us, the inmates, to Lublinacz. Here we wait in a
small cell till we are called to the courtroom. The walls of the cell are
covered with various writings: I am going to die, aged 20. The Germans
are executing me. They will receive the revenge of G-d!' and so on. All the
people sitting in the cell left a few words as a memento and signed their
names. I even left the words: On the 23rd February, 1943, I was captured
on the Polish border during a smuggling operation  Genovefa Pavlovaska
from Warsaw. A day will come and the torturers will pay for our
suffering.

Clarification of our affairs is a pure formality. The judge wears civilian
clothes. The court secretary is also the translator. A young German man appears
 the prosecutor  adjusts his tie, puts his hand behind it and
eloquently accuses us according to a Polish law of illegal border crossing and
so on. In around an hour the sentence is over. They explain to me that I have
been sentenced to three months in prison and a fine of 100 gold coins, which is
exchanged for ten days in prison.

The courtroom doors open wide before me. The female guard, Kowalik, receives
me, a typical Volksdeutsch female from the district of Silesia.

 Do you smoke?  she asks on seeing my cigarette case.

 I finished smoking all the cigarettes. I know that in prison it is
forbidden to smoke.

 It's good thing that you know this. Remember this well: If you hide
anything from me you will get it in the face!  and with a wave of her
arm she displayed how she'd carry it out. Afterwards came a string of
vulgar jokes that don't bear repeating.

The inmate, Chachaiova, a very attractive woman with an aristocratic
appearance, is a supervisor. In a swift movement she hides the
money I gave her. The female guard doesn't see anything, but the woman's heart
weakens from fear. In the shower room I hand her a cigarette. She described
where she had hidden the money and testified that I had been lucky that time,
since the guard usually severely beats the inmates. The supervisor promises to
place me in the sewing room that is under her supervision.

She has been here 10 months: a German by birth, who had received Polish
citizenship when she had married her husband, an officer in the Polish army,
who had died two years earlier. She refused to be registered as a
Volksdeutsch and serve the Gestapo, and for that she had been
sentenced to imprisonment.

After showering we were given an elegant prison uniform and placed
in a large cell, in which there were 60 women working. All eyes look up from
the table used for plucking feathers and inspect the new visitors. They know
everything already, that I am from Warsaw, and I had come to see this
wonder

[Page 372]

Bedzin in the annals of the Holocaust

Translated by Lance Ackerfeld

In volume V of Divrei Yamei Am-Olam [Chronicles of the
Eternal People] by Szymon Dubnow and published by Dvir,
Tel Aviv 5715 [1954-55], Yediot Achronot [Latest News]
edition, at the end of the book there is a historic review written by S. L.
Kirszenbaum called Divrei Yamei Am Yisrael beshnot 1936-1951
[Chronicles of the People of Israel in the years 1936-1951].

Bedzin is mentioned a few times in this article and we hereby present some
sections from it.

In the second chapter headed 1939-1943 it is written The
report by Emanuel Ringelbaum, sent on the 1st of March, 1944 (a week before he
was murdered by the Nazis) to the YIVO in the USA, there is a full description
of the life in the ghettoes in Poland. The motto of an activist member in the
ghetto was  To live in honor and die in honor. The poet
Yitzhak Katzenelson sang about the ghetto. Baruch Gaptak, the commander of the
Jewish fighters in the city of Bedzin and many others sang their ghetto songs
with all their hearts 

And more: Amongst the fighters who fell in the battle was the commander
Mordechai Anielewicz (he spent time in our city  the editor). The Warsaw
Ghetto Revolt was greatly reported amongst the few who remained in the ghettoes
of Poland. Report of the revolt reached Bedzin, Bialystok, Vilna and other
places, and it inspired a new spirit amongst the people. In each of these
ghettoes organized Jewish fighting units were created, however, the units
weren't able to actively fight in all places. The Jewish councils,
who believed, that they could ensure their lives by loyalty to the
administration, opposed them and the organization did not have sufficient and
suitable weapons. The activities in Krakow and Bedzin failed and their members
arrested, however these failures do no belittle the importance of the ghetto
revolts, since these uprisings returned the honor to all those, who were led
silently to the extermination furnaces 

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